1895, sixteen years after the proposal had been recommended by the Government of India, and although, during that period, four successive Viceroys, each backed up by a unanimous Council, had declared themselves strongly in favour of the change, that the finishing touch was given to the new organization, by the abolition of the offices of Commanders-in-Chief of Madras and Bombay, and the creation of four Army Corps, namely, the Punjab, the Bengal, the Madras, and the Bombay, each commanded by a Lieutenant-General.

[Footnote 1:  The late Major-General Sir George Colley, K.C.B.]

[Footnote 2:  Kabul was expressly selected by Yakub Khan as the place where he wished the Embassy to reside.]

[Footnote 3:  At this parade I had the great pleasure of decorating Captain Cook with the Victoria Cross, and Subadar Ragobir Nagarkoti, Jemadar Pursoo Khatri, Native Doctor Sankar Dass, and five riflemen of the 5th Gurkhas, with the Order of Merit, for their gallant conduct in the attack on the Spingawi Kotal, and during the passage of the Mangior defile.  It was a happy circumstance that Major Galbraith, who owed his life to Captain Cook’s intrepidity, and Major Fitz-Hugh, whose life was saved by Jemadar (then Havildar) Pursoo Khatri, should both have been present on the parade.]

[Footnote 4:  Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLIX. 1879

Massacre of the Embassy—­The Kabul Field Force —­Lord Lytton’s foresightedness—­Start for Kabul—­Letter to the Amir —­Proclamation to the people of Kabul—­Yakub Khan’s agents —­Reasons for remaining at Alikhel

My wife and I thought and talked much over our new life on the frontier, to which we both looked forward with great interest and pleasure, but, before entering upon it, we settled to go home for a time to place our boy at school and see our friends, and we were arranging our plans accordingly, when suddenly our ’castles in the air’ were dashed to the ground by a ruthless blow from the hand of Fate, and the whole of India, the whole of the civilized world, was struck with grief, horror, and indignation at the awful news of the massacre at Kabul of Cavagnari and his gallant companions.

Throughout the month of August telegrams and letters constantly came from Cavagnari (now a Lieutenant-Colonel and a K.C.B.) to the Viceroy, the Foreign Secretary, and myself, in which he always expressed himself in such a manner as to lead to the belief that he was perfectly content with his position, and felt himself quite secure; and in his very last letter, dated the 30th August, received after his death, he wrote:  ’I personally believe that Yakub Khan will turn out to be a very good ally, and that we shall be able to keep him to his engagements.’  His last telegram to the Viceroy, dated the 2nd September, concluded with the words, ‘All well.’